It is no secret that I have an unhealthy addiction with most things Land Rover. It probably started at an early age while watching Camel Trophy coverage and matured when I spent six weeks driving around southern Africa in a Defender 110. Overtime my lifetime I was prepared to sign a check for various Landys in various conditions, but somehow managed to resist that urge.

The one thing that I was never sure of, however, was the actual off-road-ability of factory Range Rovers. Sure, the promotional videos look impressive but the same kinds of videos exist for every car-based CUV ever made. I wanted to take a Range Rover off-road, and while I have friends and family members who own Range Rovers, I wasn’t about to ask them. I also wasn’t about to take a $100,000 press vehicle off-road, despite the fact that others in the industry do that.